ST. LOUIS — Another game in St. Louis, another loss for the Cincinnati Reds.

In the Reds’ final regular-season visit to Busch Stadium, they dropped the first of a three-game series 8-6, thanks mainly to Allen Craig’s seventh-inning grand slam off reliever J.J. Hoover.

“We’re getting down to crunch time, and every series is important — and I hate giving up the lead versus any team because every one is important,” Hoover said. “If you lose the division by one game, you can go back through the year and any game is that important game, so that’s how I treat every game. This just happened to be against the Cardinals.”